She logs into Heartscape, and interactive semi-generated narrative unfolds before her, spilling out into the description of her private Heartscape in the Dreaming.*

The black crystalline floor clacks beneath your heels as you appear, flickers of light and color sparking within the surface: orange and purple in a broad pulse halfway filling the courtyard, a jagged flash of teal toward your office, a dozen sparkles of gold toward the Gate to the Dreaming. Colorful stars glimmer in the rosy sky overhead.

Violet mumbles to herself as she takes in the scene. "About fifty thousand people currently online across the whole network, busy today. Some new worlds being written, too, that's always nice. And is that?"

She enters a few commands in a narrative shorthand.**

You stride across the courtyard, quickly approaching your office, and then step inside. A letter rests in the inbox atop the obsidian surface of your desk, glowing faintly teal around the edges.

Violet types another command, inserts a physical security key from her pocket, and types a password.

You open the letter, the protective seal unraveling in a crackle of teal sparks.

Dear Violet,

I'm sure you weren't expecting to hear from me again before our next worldweaving duel,*** but I ran across news that simply can't wait.

These test prints passed across my desk for review this morning. A quick skim of the content — or even just a glance at the covers — reveals them to be more alien literature, following in the footsteps of the Krissan shirasanmi. I've enclosed a photo of several of them on my desk by way of proof.

Knowing turnaround times, at our usual printers I expect these to be in stores within a few days at the latest. I expect they'll sell out as quickly as the last release did.

I hope you and yours are well, and I look forward to our next chance to meet.

Sincerely yours,

Crimson Quill

Well. Looks like today's going to be more interesting than Violet expected. She snaps the letter shut and logs out with a quick pair of commands, then gets out her phone and calls the bookstore.

*Users can create personal worlds, called Heartscapes, that serve as dashboard, workspace, and personal meeting area, connected to the platform's broader narrative landscape, the Dreaming, made of all the interconnected spaces hosted on every server and personal machine of every user.
**Heartscape's interface is far more immersively narrative than can be easily depicted here. This is an oversimplification of something more elegant.
***A popular pastime in the Dreaming is to coauthor a world in a fusion of collaboration and competition, each author writing their own additions into the world without contradicting or obstructing the other's, while trying to dominate the overall narrative direction of the space as elegantly and coherently as possible.

"Hello, Blackquill Books?" The voice on the line is unmistakably Snow's.

"Hello, Snow, it's Violet," Vi's voice carries her smirk well. "What would you say if I told you I was once again implausibly well informed and wanted to preorder some books that hadn't been officially announced?"

"I would say thanks and that I'd like another coffee. Tomorrow night? The night after?"

A bit of mental math flickers through her mind: how quickly she expects they'll finish the Krissan's story, when she expects the books to be released and Snow to suddenly be too exhausted by work...

"Tomorrow night is perfect. I'll meet you at closing?"

"Sounds good to me."

"See you then~."

And when that conversation's wrapped, she gets up and twirls into the rest of the house looking for her girlfriends to tell them the news.

Foxy is closest; she looks up from some paperwork and smiles. "You've got a bounce in your step. What now?"

She smirks. "Well, do you wanna hear about the new alien books, my abusing my status and pretty face to get unofficial preorders, or my having coffee with Snow tomorrow night?"

"I swear, you're incorrigible." Foxy shakes her head. "I bet Liv will be pleased. We're just about out of the Krissan Shirasanmi, after all."

And they go find their girlfriend together to tell her, and life goes on for the next day or three.

After their date, Snow asks quite casually if Violet would mind giving her her phone number in case anything weird comes up.

Violet nods firmly and gives it to her, being of the opinion that wading into weird messes on behalf of people you like is part of the point of having connections and money in the first place.

Eventually the day of the release rolls around, and around lunchtime there's a call from Snow. 

"Hello, is this Violet?"

"Mhm~. Hi, Snow, what's up?"

"We're super slammed today and my manager says I'm going to have to work overtime, so can we push back our date to around eleven PM? I'll meet you at the il'ka. Bring a coat, it's cold late these nights. Anyway my manager's waiting on me I have to go bye!"

Vi rolls with this rapid-fire. "Totally fine, I'll see you then. Have a good shift!"

Well. Apparently Snow's not bad at codes on the fly. Violet takes a look at the news to see how the early reactions are playing out.

...Okay then. She clears out a sleek but sturdy messenger bag, and tosses in a bottle of massage oil. Snow's going to be worn out by eleven.

A few hours later, there's a ringing noise from Black Cross' bedroom, followed by a sleepy mumble. 

Not long after that, X emerges from her room. She's pulling on her top and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. 

"They want me at the il'ka," she says to Violet as she passes. "I'm going."

She kisses X on the cheek and nods. "Makes sense; it's release day and you'll probably be busy. I'll be meeting Snow there at eleven to pick up our copies. Be safe, love, and call me if I can help with anything."

"She says to the trained professional. I'll be fine. But yeah, see you at eleven. I'll call if there's a crisis."

"Heh, yeah, I know you've got this. I just worry anyway. Love you, see you then."

Black Cross grabs her keys from off the table and leaves.